A controversial paintball tournament in Huntington Beach that had environmentalists upset because of balls of paint scattered on the sand afterward will not be returning next year.
“Certainly, we have a lot of events gong on. It’s always been a controversial event for us,” said city spokeswoman Laurie Payne.
The Super 7 World Series of Paintball tournament – usually held in March – for the past six years brings in about 70,000 spectators to the sand, along with 1,500 players who battle it out on courts.

The event is put on by the National Professional Paintball League, and includes amateurs and professionals.
The city was just informed about the news Monday, with tournament organizers citing budget constraints.

“It’s a good financial generator,” Payne said. But having the event gone: “It’s not going to kill us.”

The event last year brought in about $480,000 to the city.

The three-day event had its critics.

This year, Mike Martin was driving down Pacific Coast Highway when orange paint splattered under his wheel well, tires and bumper.

“The street was covered in them, you couldn’t dodge them,” he said at the time. “They were still cracking and popping and squirting all over.”

Crewmembers would spend days picking up paintballs, starting at 6 a.m. to midnight to clean up the aftermath, scooping them up with shovels and plucking the balls from the sand. The balls are biodegradable.

well the did site in the aritcle that my balls are biodegradable but still said the event was being canceled due to environmental risks...
tree huggers are the least educated bunch of people I have ever known about.

Seems to me they canceled the event because the NPPL pulled out. Simple as that. They brought the environmental issues up to help make everyone feel better that they had just lost revenue for the city, but hey look - no more environmental issue - isn't that good.

No its not...everyone in that community hates paintballers...when you go there if you say paintballers everyone glares at you...months later paintballs are still on the beach, its not like 1 million paintballs biodegrade in a month. Basically the town is saying thanks but no thanks, they aren't interested.

Now would another town be? Possible, but who knows... But what I do know is most of the people that use the beaches despise the paintball event. You would too if it wasn't "your sport".

If the source of information is the article, then it says nothing about HB banning paintball. It just says what we already know: that the event was cancelled by the NPPL, not the city. "The city was just informed about the news Monday, with tournament organizers citing budget constraints."

Did half of you people even read the article? It says that the event was cancelled by the NPPL, not the city. "The city was just informed about the news Monday, with tournament organizers citing budget constraints."
The title of this thread is incorrect.